Cookers - Gas or Electric?

[SexyGreyFox]

All gas, instant heat.
It makes cooking much easier in my eyes.

Electric is instant.

I find a gas oven heats up faster.

No it doesn't.
Not one gas cooker on my Cooker Porn sheet heats up quicker than an electric.
Electric cookers usually come with instructions to knock a bit of time off.

 

[Sankari]

As title, I'm looking at buying an oven, as my brother has decided he wants a double oven, and I hadn't realised the amount of choice available in terms of fuel. We've got all Gas atm, but the one I'm looking at is an Electric oven, with a Gas Hob.

Which is best and why?

Dual fuel for the win.

That way you get the instant heat and superior temperature control of a gas hob, and the programmable "fire and forget" fan-forced benefit of an electric oven.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Dual fuel for the win.

That way you get the instant heat and superior temperature control of a gas hob, and the programmable "fire and forget" fan-forced benefit of an electric oven.

I read nearly every post you make but you obviously haven't read mine.
You're talking rubbish.
Gas no longer gives instant heat and superior temp control over electric.
Electric is just as controllable and quicker.

In this pic there are 2 gas & 3 electric and I'll guarantee the electrics heat up quicker and are just as controllable.
In this lab there are a total of 32 cookers being tested.

This is where we measured the temperatures of all 32 cookers :

I can't believe I did this for 27 years.

 

[Glaucus]

In this pic there are 2 gas & 3 electric and I'll guarantee the electrics heat up quicker and are just as controllable.

how can you tell that from some water heating tests?

try doing some proper cooking on them then you'll find why chefs use gas.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

how can you tell that from some water heating tests?

try doing some proper cooking on them then you'll find why chefs use gas.

If you had read my other posts for many years we used proper food but there was no difference in our results except electric cooked it quicker.
We therefore went over to water because we didn't need to cook food anymore.

We had many days when chefs came in to test products including Delia Smith and every one of them agreed electric was just as good but its all down to a matter of what you prefer and more importantly what you learnt your trade on.
Nowadays it is a total myth and misconception that gas is better.

 

[Sankari]

I read nearly every post you make but you obviously haven't read mine.

Not on this thread, no. I just added my 2p to the end; I didn't read the whole thing.

You're talking rubbish.
Gas no longer gives instant heat and superior temp control over electric.
Electric is just as controllable and quicker.

I would love to see the electric element hob that reaches the same temperature as a gas flame hob in less time than it takes for the gas to ignite. That would be pretty special, IMHO.

In this pic there are 2 gas & 3 electric and I'll guarantee the electrics heat up quicker and are just as controllable.
In this lab there are a total of 32 cookers being tested.

This is where we measured the temperatures of all 32 cookers :

I can't believe I did this for 27 years.

Well if someone paid me to lean on a chair for 27 years, I'd probably be up for that too.

Electric oven still > gas oven though, right?

 

[SexyGreyFox]

I would love to see the electric element hob that reaches the same temperature as a gas flame hob in less time than it takes for the gas to ignite. That would be pretty special, IMHO.

Immediately you are right.
eg Put your hand on a gas hob and ignite and you will burn your hand immediately.
Put your hand on an electric hob and you could leave it there for several seconds (we used to play games with this).
However, within a few more seconds the electric will be more efficient and heat the food up much quicker.

Well if someone paid me to lean on a chair for 27 years, I'd probably be up for that too.

Thats tony and we used to call him Mr Google.
That is a very rare picture of him not being on Google.

Electric oven still > gas oven though, right?

Not really and fan assisted is a bit of a con.
Heat will find its way to the colder areas so therefore inside the oven its just as hot everywhere.
We did COTs (Centre Of Oven) tests and Tony will probably be looking for that temperature.
The only thing fan assisted does is make it quicker so if you saw a readout it would be like a mountain range where the elements turn on and off.
Without a fan it would be more like a wobbly line.

 

[Glaucus]

Not really and fan assisted is a bit of a con.
Heat will find its way to the colder areas so therefore inside the oven its just as hot everywhere.
We did COTs (Centre Of Oven) tests and Tony will probably be looking for that temperature.
The only thing fan assisted does is make it quicker so if you saw a readout it would be like a mountain range where the elements turn on and off.
Without a fan it would be more like a wobbly line.

Bs hot air rises. fan assisted keeps the oven fairly constant temperature every where. non fan assisted electric oven will burn the top before the bottom cooks.
This is why lab tests are rubbish if there all carried out in that style.
You don't even need a thermometer, get two identical dishes and put one in a fan assisted and one in a normal and you can easily see the difference.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Bs hot air rises.

You're right hot air rises but heat will find cold.

Simple test -
Get an iron bar, hold it at the bottom and if heat rises then when you blowtorch it at the top your hand will never get hot.
Heat goes everywhere and when you buy your first house you'll find this out very quickly.

My (ex) company invented the fan assisted oven and we all knew the claims were false.
It does heat up the food quicker.

I cooked food for the first 22 years, it was only when the Italians came that we stopped.
They actually had a point because the results were the same whether we used meat or water.

 

[Burnsy2023]

Get an iron bar, hold it at the bottom and if heat rises then when you blowtorch it at the top your hand will never get hot.

That's testing conduction, not convection.

Burnsy

 

[Sankari]

Immediately you are right.
eg Put your hand on a gas hob and ignite and you will burn your hand immediately.
Put your hand on an electric hob and you could leave it there for several seconds (we used to play games with this).
However, within a few more seconds the electric will be more efficient and heat the food up much quicker.

OK, I'm curious now. The physics are probably beyond me, but I am eager to understand, so can you explain in simple terms why the electric is more efficient and heats the food faster? It it because an electric hob covers more surface area than a gas one, and the transference of heat is faster, or something?

Thats tony and we used to call him Mr Google.
That is a very rare picture of him not being on Google.

Lucky old Tony, I say!

Not really and fan assisted is a bit of a con.
Heat will find its way to the colder areas so therefore inside the oven its just as hot everywhere.
We did COTs (Centre Of Oven) tests and Tony will probably be looking for that temperature.
The only thing fan assisted does is make it quicker so if you saw a readout it would be like a mountain range where the elements turn on and off.
Without a fan it would be more like a wobbly line.

I see.

 

[Glaucus]

You're right hot air rises but heat will find cold.

Simple test -
Get an iron bar, hold it at the bottom and if heat rises then when you blowtorch it at the top your hand will never get hot.
Heat goes everywhere and when you buy your first house you'll find this out very quickly.

My (ex) company invented the fan assisted oven and we all knew the claims were false.
It does heat up the food quicker.

I cooked food for the first 22 years, it was only when the Italians came that we stopped.
They actually had a point because the results were the same whether we used meat or water.

How the hell did they let you do trials. Everything you saying is so wide of the mark it's just wrong.

Convection and conduction are two totally different types of heat.

 

[ojste]

electric hobs are crap, you need to plan out your cooking as it takes ages for it to actually change heat!!

this is my experience with uni electric hobs so expensive stuff is probs a bit better.

 

[singist]

A few bits of info regarding induction hobs, taken from various sites inc Wiki and the bay:

An induction cooker uses induction heating for cooking. A ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic coated pot is placed above an induction coil for the heating process to take place. This type of cooktop does not work with non-ferromagnetic cookware such as glass, aluminum, and most stainless steel, nor with ferromagnetic material covered with a conductive layer, such as a copper-bottomed pan.

Induction cookers are faster and more energy-efficient than traditional cooktops. Additionally, the stove top does not become dangerously hot; however, skin can still be burned if it comes into contact with the inside of the pot. Also, the induction cooker does not warm the air around it as other cookers do.

Since heat is being generated from an electric current induced by an electric coil, the range can detect when cookware is removed or its contents boil out by monitoring the voltage drop caused by resistance to the current. This creates possible additional functions, such as keeping a pot at minimal boil or automatically turning off when the cookware is removed.

Benefits

This form of flameless cooking has an edge over conventional gas flame and electric cookers as it provides rapid heating, vastly improved thermal efficiency, greater heat consistency, plus the same or greater degree of controllability as gas.
The amount of time that it takes a pot to boil depends on the power of the induction cooktop. Thus, the time can be from three minutes for 3600 watt induction stove tops, to around ten minutes for 1200 watt ones: much faster than conventional electric coil or radiant cookers.

Induction cookers are safer to use than conventional stoves because there are no open flames and the "element" itself reaches only the temperature of the cooking vessel; only the pan becomes hot. However, it must be remembered that that pan was at 100 °C (212 °F) and in deep fat frying could be as hot as 200 °C (392 °F). Induction cookers are also easier to clean because the cooking surface is flat and smooth, even though it may have several zones of heating induction. In addition, food cannot burn onto the cooking surface as it is not hot.


Economic considerations.
Induction cookers are considerably more expensive than traditional cookers, but consume half as much electricity as electric-resistance elements and are more efficient in heat transfer, achieving an absolute efficiency of 84% in US Dept of energy tests (compared to a typical 40% for a gas cooker). According to CEG Electric Glass Company, "Induction cooking power savings of 40-70% are realistically achievable in comparison to conventional cooktops." CEG Electric Glass Company also states induction cooking has an efficiency rate of 90%, while Electric and Gas have efficiency rates of less than 50%.



Efficiency. Looking specifically at heat transfer, from hob to cooking utensils.

-- Gas 55%
-- Spiral Ring 65%
-- Solid Plate 65%
-- Halogen 70%
-- Induction 80 to 90%

I hope that this info is of some use in dispelling all the bad publicity about electrical hobs.